Peter Jones (actor)

Peter Geoffrey Francis Jones (12 June 1920 – 10 April 2000) was an English actor, screenwriter and broadcaster.

Biography

Early life and career

Peter Jones was born in Wem, Shropshire and he was educated at Wem Grammar School and Ellesmere College. He made his first appearance as an actor in Wolverhampton at the age of 16 and then appeared in repertory theatre in East Anglia. In 1942 he acted on the West End stage in The Doctor's Dilemma and in 1942 he made an uncredited film appearance in Fanny by Gaslight. An early film credit was as a Xenobian trade delegate in Chance of a Lifetime (1950).

Radio

Between 1952 and 1955 Jones starred alongside Peter Ustinov in the BBC radio comedy In All Directions. The show featured Jones and Ustinov as themselves in a car in London perpetually searching for Copthorne Avenue. The comedy derived from the characters they met along the way, often also played by themselves. The show was unusual for the time in that it was largely improvised—with the tape subsequently edited for broadcast by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, who also sometimes took part. Two of the more popular characters were Morris and Dudley Grosvenor, two rather stupid East End spivs whose sketches always ended with the phrase "Run for it Dudley" (or Morry as appropriate). One recording, from October 1952, survives in the BBC Sound Archive. Another notable radio role was as Mervyn Bunter in Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey stories. He was for 29 years a regular contestant on the panel game Just A Minute, becoming much-loved for his dry, acid wit.